OKATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 




|,itg l^ouncil -;uhI titisens of | 



ofiton. 



DXi: in'NDKED AND FIEST AXXIYERSARY OF THE DECLARATION 
OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



JULY 4, 1S77. 



BY 



HON. WILLIAM WIRT WARREN. 










§ s 1 n : 








printp:d 


BY 


ORDER OF THE 


CITY 


COUNCIL. 








MDCCCLXXVII 


' 






Glass L^lk_ 

Book 3 7-^_ 

l§7? 



ORATION 



DELIVERKD BEFORE THE 



1/^2 l^omml HiwI |^ttt2cns of Iciston, 



ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE DECLARATION 
OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 



JULY 4, 1877. 



BY 



HON. WILLIAM WIRT WARREN. 



Qico in tempore ipso adeo magna animo civitas fuit, ut consnli ex tanta clade cujus 
ipse causa maxima fvisset, redeunti, et obviam itum frequenter ab omnibus ordinibus sit, 
et gratia acta quod de re-publica non desperasset. — Liv. xxii. c. Ixi. 




§0st0it: 

PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 



M D C C C L X XV I I 



\ > .— — - — — ^«.i 





r - r.-v ; 

Jill 1% 190H 






^ • CITY OF BOSTON 

t 



In Common Council, July 5, 1877. 

Ordered^ That the thauks of the City Council be tendered 
to the Hon. William Wirt Warren, for the very appro- 
priate, interesting, and eloquent oration delivered by him 
before the municipal authorities of the City of Boston on the 
occasion of the one hundred and first anniversary of Amer- 
ican Independence ; and that he be requested to furnish a 
copy of the same for publication. 

Sent up for concurrence. 

BENJAMIN POPE, 

President. 

In Board of Aldermen, July 9, 1877. • 

Concurred. , ,... 

JOHN T. CLARK, 

Chairman. 

Approved July 10, 1877. 

FEEDEEIGK O. PRINCE, 

Mayor. 



EXERCISES AT THE BOSTON THEATEE. 



The oration was delivered in the Boston Theatre, before 
an audience of three thousand persons. After music by the 
Cadet Band, the Mayor, Hon. Frederick O. Prince, intro- 
duced the chaplain of the occasion, the Rev. Robert Laird 
Collier, who made an eloquent prayer. The Mayor then 
spoke as follows : — 

We are assembled, fellow-citizens, for the purpose 
of celebrating, more majorum, the anniversary of the 
Declaration of American Independence. It is fitting 
and proper that we should do so, for there is no event 
recorded in our annals more solemn and important 
than this great announcement to the world by the 
patriotic men of 1776, in Congress assembled, that 
the American colonies were no longer British depend- 
encies, but free, sovereign, and independent States. 
What human act can be more grave and momentous 
than that which creates a nation? The four millions 
of people who hailed the dawn of the 4th of July, 
1776, are now approaching fifty millions. Their 
rejoicings and acclamations this day, no longer con- 
fined to the narrow territory comprising the original 



6 EXEKC1SE8 AT THE BOSTON THEATRE. 

thirteen colonies, resound throughout a vast continent 
washed by two mighty oceans. If there be any day 
in the year which should be dear and sacred to 
Americans, it is this day. Upon its recurrence, all 
political differences and animosities should be put 
aside. With hearts purified of every disturbing 
sentiment we should bow in gratitude to Almighty 
God for the national blessings we are permitted to 
enjoy. 

Be assured that when this anniversary and its 
associations shall be forgotten, or regarded with 
indifference and apathy, the patriotic s^^irit which 
alone can defend and maintain the liberties born 
of our great Magna Charta will have gone from 
us, and when we have followed the fate of the 
other nations of the past, the philosophic historian, 
in tracing effects to their causes, will date our 
decline and fall from the decadence of this spirit. 
The causes which led to, and the results which 
flowed from, the great Declaration, and the reflec- 
tions naturally suggested thereby, have been "often 
and eloquently told;" but no patriotic heart can 
tire of the repetition or listen to the story with- 
out fresli emotions of gratitude toward the noble 
men who, by their sufferings and sacrifices achieved 
the Independence they promulgated in the Declara- 
tion. These results have not been confined to our 
own country. The political principles announced 



JULY 4, 18 77. 7 

by the Fathers on the 4th of July, 1776, have 
influenced the governments of the world and 
afii'ected the destiny of nations. This influence still 
continues, and will not cease until civilization, 
through some terrible cause, shall be blotted from 
the earth. 

But it is not for me to speak to you of this 
theme on this occasion. You have come here to 
listen to other and more eloquent lips, and I will 
not detain you longer from the exercises. I will 
ask you, in the first place, to listen to the reci- 
tation of a poem, written by the Rev. George A. 
Bethune, by Miss H. E. Hasken^s. 

The poem was entitled " The Fourth of July," and it 
was read in a manner to elicit from the audience a 
warm tribute of applause. The Declaration of Independ- 
ence was then read in an impressive manner, by Mr. 
George F. Babbitt. The Mayor next introduced the 
Hon. William Wirt Warren as the orator, who deliv- 
ered the followinof oration : — 



ORATION. 

At that time, says the historian Livy, there was in the State such 
greatness of soul that the people of all ranks went out in crowds to 
meet that consul returning from the field of slaughter, who had been 
himself the main cause of the misfortune, and gave him thanks because 
he had not despaired of the republic. 

The battle of Caniice had been fought and lost. 
The Koman Republic seemed, to all appearance, 
about to become subject to the victorious Cartha- 
ginian. But in that critical hour there was no 
thought of yielding. The people of all classes 
felt, with one accord, that, so long as faith in the 
Bepublic remained, so long its ultimate triumph 
over all its enemies might be confidently hoped for. 

Our Kepublic is threatened by no foreign adver- 
sary. Even if war should beat upon it we need 
not fear for the result. The broad ocean protects 
its borders, and everywhere mighty rivers and moun- 
tain ranges interpose to prevent the advance of an 
invading army, while recent and terrible experience 
has proven that no part of our country, and no 
class of our people, of whatever origin, are wanting 
in courage or endurance, when the Republic calls its 
children to arms. But we have heard on all sides 



10 ORATION. 

despairing voices, as if the termination of the first 
century of our national existence had j)receded by 
but a short period the final overthrow of our insti- 
tutions. I know of no more fitting subject to reflect 
upon in this opening year of the second century than 
the real condition of our country. What is the 
promise of the second century of our Independence? 
Let us, before, we yield to despondency, or indulge 
in too glowing dreams of what the future has in 
store for us, calmly review the grounds for fear or 
for hope. Let us see if in this year we, as a nation, 
are moving forward and upward in our moral and 
political career, or backward and toward a lower 
plane. Let us see if our aflairs are so critical that 
it is worthy of special mention if a leader can be 
found who does not despair of the Republic. 

For this purpose it may be well for us to bring 
together, in the first place, all the scattered charges 
that have been made by the timid, the disappointed, 
the friends of other counti"ies and other forms of 
government, the advocates of special reforms, the 
believers in particular religious creeds, in short, by 
all classes of men who so revere the past that they 
see little good in the present; or, on the other hand, 
those who are so bent upon some scheme to bring 
about the future perfection of mankind that they can 
see no progress, but only danger, in any moral, social, 
or political movement which does not accord with 



JULY 4, 1877. 11 

their preconceived theories. Let us hear what they 
say. They discourse of politics. They say, Your 
experiment of self-government, heretofore perhaps of 
a doubtful result, these last few years have proved to 
be a disastrous failure. Every one of the principles 
of yom* complex organization has been treated with 
contempt. Your Federal Government has made and 
unmade States. It has taken from the States powers 
that were reserved to them, and from the people 
rights that they never ceded to it. The distribution 
of the powers of government into three departments 
has likewise been disregarded. Your Executive in- 
terferes unrebuked with legislation. Your Congress 
by turns encroaches upon executive functions, and 
anon yields to executive demands. Your judiciary 
is modified by your Executive at a critical season, and 
its decisions are reversed really by executive action. 
Again, your whole body of subordinate officials, from 
a member of the cabinet to the lowest tide-waiter in 
the custom-house, are appointed and retained only 
by a cori'upt combination between the executive and 
the legislative bodies, whereby each representative of 
the States and of the people secures his portion of 
the spoils of office and his share of influence in the 
country; so that this crowd of interested persons 
have for years packed your caucuses, and led and 
controlled the people whom they were appointed, 
theoretically, to serve. If you come to the people 



12 ORATION. 

themselves you have nothing better to show. From 
highest to lowest they are so wedded to party that 
they never look at the right or wrong of a question, 
but, with the exception of a few men, who profess to 
act from higher motives, who do a good deal of 
protesting and speaking and writing, but influence 
few votes, and, in fact, generally abandon their posi- 
tions before election day, you have no one who is 
not as much the slave of his party as the soldier is 
bound to obey the orders of his commander. To 
such an extent has this proceeded that, when you 
finally, in your last attempt to elect a President of the 
United States, found the voice of the majority actually 
set at nought, and the votes of whole States counted 
for the candidate against whom their people had 
voted; when you knew that this was accomplished by 
a conspiracy organized and carried through by your 
own officers, — done, too, in the face of day, and 
with hardly an attempt at concealment, — there was 
not only no organized plan to prevent the consumma- 
tion of the fraud, but there was no protest either before 
or after the event, and no united public opinion, so far 
as could be observed or learned through the press, 
except on one simple point, and that was, that some 
result, no matter what, might be reached. And so 
little was the moral aspect of the question regarded, 
so little importance is attached to it now, that if one 
but ventures to allude in public to the great wicked- 



JULY4,1877. 13 

ness, he is sneered at and derided, even by your 
high-toned independent newspapers, as a man who 
seeks to revive dead issues ; as a fool if he does not 
admit that, if an administration only pursues a 
correct policy after it gets into power, it is not of 
the slightest consequence how it gets in; as a man 
wanting in moral perception, if he does not clearly 
comprehend that good deeds while in office atone for 
the crime of stealing the office itself. And so this 
class of people conclude by asserting that, where the 
rulers are so corrupt and the people so indiflferent, it 
can be a question of but a few years when we shall 
have to give up a Republic and adopt some other 
form of government. 

But this is not all. We are told by another class, 
who look at the social rather than the political side 
of aftairs, that there are evident signs of decay in the 
facts presented to their observation. There is a con- 
stantly decreasing birth-rate, they say, among the 
people who are considered Americans because their 
ancestors came to this country a few generations 
before some other people's ancestors. There is a 
growing disposition to ease and luxury. Bankruptcy 
is so common as to be no longer disgraceful, and so 
peculiar in its operation that, instead of leaving its 
subject poor, both he and his family seem to be, if 
anything, better fed and housed and clothed after 
than before their misfortunes, ^ot character, but 



14 ORATION. 

wealth, is the great object of desire, and, in default 
of the realit}^, the simulation of wealth is attempted. 
So that our social life is hollow. The substance 
everywhere yields to appearance. Those who cannot 
on all sides envy those who can make a display and 
hold a social position. Hence false pride and envy 
and jealousy are all the time ruling passions, and the 
honest, simple, homely farm and family life of the 
Revolution has become distasteful, and finds none, or 
at best but few, to imitate it. Another reason, say 
this class of the despairing, for taking a gloomy view 
of the future, is the fact that our population has be- 
come so heterogeneous. We must contend hereafter 
not only with the diversity of habit and opinions, and 
wants and interests which flow from the vast extent 
of our country and its variety of soil and climate, 
and which in a short time would make it extremely 
difficult to hold in union a people originally homo- 
geneous; we have the still greater task before us to 
keep in one nation people of two distinct races, and of 
almost every nationality. They are of many tongues 
and of conflicting beliefs, nay, even of diflJ'erent relig- 
ions, and of no religion at all. Even the one thing 
which should unite them all, — those of the earlier 
English emigrations, those of Irish origin or descent, 
with the German, the French, the Italian, and the 
Scandinavian, — that love of liberty which brought 
them or their ancestors to these shores, is not under- 



JULY 4, 1877. 15 

stood in the same way by all. It does not lead the 
German to the same views of government as the 
Frenchman, nor either to a full comprehension of the 
federal system. Even our boasted trial by jury is 
to them anything but the important safeguard of 
civil rights which it seems to us. They find in the 
State legislation numerous instances of the interfer- 
ence by government with the life and habits of the 
citizen. They cannot be satisfied with a government 
of law simply. The freedom they long for is too often 
freedom from the law, and not merely freedom under 
the law. Is it wonderful that the country is jealous 
of the city, and that the city looks askance at the 
country, when we reflect that in the States which 
have metropolitan cities, the population of these 
cities is in very large and usually controlling num- 
bers made up of these later and discordant materials, 
while the control of aftairs in the country remains in 
the hands of those who are to the manor born? 

The conflict between the different races must con- 
tinue. It is deeper seated than any conflict of sec- 
tions. Difference of language intensifies it, but the 
fundamental facts are diverse habits of thought and 
absolutely hostile opinions on subjects which all 
deem of vital importance. The politicians see this, 
and already seek their advantages by attempting to 
revive in this !N^ew World the religious struggle which 
has been carried on for centuries in the Old. The 



10 ORATION. 

American people of the various Protestant faiths are 
warned of the danger from the Catholic church. 
The Protestant or Catholic of foreign birth needs no 
great exhorting to awaken anew in his heart the 
sense of wrong which he always felt at home at the 
oppression practised upon him by his antagonist. 
Of course, it depends upon where his home was 
whether it was the Catholic or the Protestant who 
was accustomed to feel the sense of wrong; and vice 
versa, whether it was the Protestant or Catholic who 
was the oppressor. But while your politicians are 
adroit and ready to bring to the support of their 
party the terrible hatreds always evoked by religious 
controversy, your people, of whose intelligence and 
allegiance to the principle of toleration you are never 
tired of boasting, instead of making examples of 
these wicked stirrers-up of strife, fall at once 
into the trap thus laid for them. Their intelligence 
gives way before a blind fear of the scarlet woman 
who so scared their forefathers. Their devotion to 
toleration yields to the same unreasoning fright. 
They second the efforts of the demagogue; and elec- 
tions in great States have already been decided by the- 
force of the same kind of religious intolerance which 
burned Protestants at the stake in Spain, and sent 
Quakers into exile in :N^ew England; and this, not- 
withstanding the fact that in those very elections 
most important questions of political economy, and of 



JULY 4, 1877. 17 

the policy of the General Government towards the 
States, were pending. Further, the clergy themselves 
on both sides helped on the strife. 

It need not be said that the pretext for raising the 
qnestion was fonnd in connection with onr free 
public-school system. The religionists on both sides 
insisted that in one way or another a religious should 
be combined with a secular education. Of course, 
by a religious education each side meant an inculca- 
tion of its own religious views. The one would 
accomplish this by religious exercises in the schools; 
the other by separating the scholars, so that each 
school might be attended by pupils of a particular 
faith, which could be there inculcated along with the 
regular studies; thus, of course, making necessary a 
division of the public-school fund. Wliile their 
methods were different, their error was the same. 
Both would use the public schools for their sectarian 
ends. And the people were found more ready to 
quarrel over the question, which of two wrong 
ways should be followed, than to say, at once and 
unitedly, this is not a political question; your secta- 
rian controversies must not invade the schools; no 
creed shall be known within their walls ; no exercise 
which oifends the conscience of any citizen, be he 
Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile. If you 
believe that religious or secular education must go 
together, provide your own schools and mode of 



18 ORATION. 

teaching. The pubhc money can be used only to 
provide that kind and amount of learning which all 
desire alike, and which all can acquire in common. 
Instead of taking this position, it seems as if the 
people, both Protestant and Catholic, and the clergy 
who are, above all, responsible if they aid in arousing 
a religious conflict, were bent upon dividing upon 
this religious quarrel. All history teaches that such 
controversies quickly get beyond the control of the 
leaders in them; that they arouse the worst passions 
of men; that they cause the bloodiest wars, which 
leave both parties where they started; and that 
humanity and religion itself are the great losers by 
the struggle. Yet, continue these cavillers, your 
people, knowing all this, applaud the men who, for 
political ends, invent, so to speak, the religious 
controversy; follow their banners, and rush blindly 
on in a course, which, if followed out, might lead to 
a civil war more bitter, more senseless, more ex- 
tended, than that through which we have passed. 

What reason, then, have jon for hoping to make 
your Republic permanent, when your people are 
shown to possess the same faults, Avhich, in other 
people, have proved fatal to other Republics? But 
this is not all. You have two powerful influences 
at woi"k which, indeed, control your afiairs in spite of 
whatever good impulses the people themselves might 
have. These are your corporations and your public 



JULY 4, 1877. 19 

press. The power of the former is wonderful, when 
we remember that it is really nothing but the power 
of organized capital. Yet your Legislatures in State 
after State seem to have no function but to frame 
into laws the projects of one or another gigantic 
corporation. And your National Congress, while 
for fifteen years its halls have resounded to speeches 
which breathed nothing but patriotism and love for 
the equality of man, has been invaded and made 
captive by the myrmidons of these continental cor- 
porations, which have undertaken the most magnifi- 
cent enterprises for the pubhc good, upon the single 
condition that the public treasury should pay the 
cost, while the corporations took the profit to repay 
them for the thought and attention and public spirit 
which they had bestowed upon the matter. But no 
private person, and no combination of private per- 
sons, can contend against one of these corporations; 
and when these artificial persons combine, and carry 
on their operations through State after State, and 
get further the Federal Government committed to 
their schemes, they are for the time all-powerful, 
and compel governments and people to obey their 
behests. And then your press, what an instrument 
of corruption! The organs of party, proceed these 
prophets of evil, might be expected to distort the 
truth in the interest of their chents. But need 
they attack private character, when such an attack 



20 ORATION. 

has no foundation? Yet they do so, and seem even 
more rejoiced to make a false charge against a 
candidate of the opposite party than a true one. 
For a false charge is more apt to produce a reply 
or an explanation, then a controversy with the jour- 
nal, the end of which is sure to he that if the can- 
didate did not steal a hen, as originally charged, 
he yet left out a consonant in spelling the name of 
some country town in European Russia. And this 
of course shows that the ncAVspaper was right from 
the first. 

But the non-partisan newspapers are no better. 
They blackguard men on both sides; that is their 
principal distinction. The grave and serious charge 
against the press is this: It disregards truth: it 
seeks only to make a sensation. Yet as the stream 
rises as high and no higher than its source, so the 
press, which is the creature of the popular breath, 
and seeks diligently to gratify the opinions and 
tastes, and to reach the moral and political level, of 
the public on whom it depends, must be held to truly 
reflect the character, the opinions, the aspirations of 
the people. And, judging by the general tone of the 
press, these critics triumphantly conclude, what faith 
can we have in that people? 

The truth is, they go on (encouraged by their own 
assertions) , that the people are incapable of thought. 
A generation of mothers has come upon the stage, 



JULY 4, 1877. 21 

which is the natural product, intellectually consid- 
ered, of a girlhood fed upon novels ; a generation of 
fathers, which is but the embodiment of the multipli- 
cation table* so that when serious matters call for 
the exercise of the necessary faculties, the labor is 
too irksome. The first appeal to sentiment decides 
the conduct of men and women both. The fcAv who 
are accustomed to reflect, who are not unmindful 
that while sentiment may lead men to wish for what 
is just and true, reason alone can point out the way 
to accomplish the desired end; who know also that 
the real question, on every occasion when a political 
or social reform is demanded, is not whether the end 
is desirable, but what are the best means to reach the 
end; and, as a consequence, that what is required of 
the people is the power to think, and not simply the 
capacity to feel; but who find parties built upon senti- 
ment merely, and directed by the designing, who 
play upon the sentiment; measures carried out with- 
out any attention being paid to their efficiency, but 
because they seem to be framed in sympathy with 
the ruling sentiment, — these few, the only ones who 
recognize the true character of political and social 
problems, despair of the Republic, and despair of the 
social system when folly, imder the mask of senti- 
ment, controls the masses of the people, and the 
faculty of reason is no longer called into exercise. 
Time would fail us to repeat the views of those 



2'2 ORATION. 

who hold that our institutions, as at present adjusted, 
are anything but a success, but who beUeve and con- 
tend that with certain modifications they would be 
quite perfect. Some say the fault is in the mode of 
electing the chief magistrate, or the duration of his 
office. They are disagreed as to the change that 
should be made. He should be elected by the people, 
without the intervention of the electoral college. A 
majority of all the people should elect. A majority in 
each State should throw the vote of the State. The 
electoral college should be retained, but should meet 
as one body and decide upon the eligibility of its own 
members. The term of the President should be 
lengthened. He should be eligible for only one term. 
The Cabinet should have seats in the House of Rep- 
resentatives or Senate, or both, and should resign if a 
cabinet measure is defeated. The will of the people 
should be allowed to decide all questions. The 
administration should always be in accord with the 
majority in the popular branch. Two houses are an 
absurdity; they were created in imitation of the 
English Parliament; but the reason which required a 
House of Lords there does not exist here, and the 
Senate has no raison dfetre. A reform in the civil 
service, thinks another, will remedy all evils. Office 
must be conferred upon the most worthy, either for a 
stated term, or during good behavior. There must 
be representation of minorities, says another. At 



JULY 4, 1877. 23 

present the minority has no right. The majority is a 
tyrant, and its dominion is as nnjnstifiable as that of 
a monarch or an ohgarchy. AYe must restrain the 
suffrage, says another. Intelligence should rule, and 
an educational qualification be everywhere established. 
No, replies still another, the suffrage is a right, and 
should be made as universal as possible. There 
should be no distinction of race, or birthplace, or sex. 
One says there should be compulsory education, reg- 
ulated by the G-eneral Government, so as to produce 
a homogeneous opinion and avert the evils arising 
from our diverse population. On the other hand, it 
is said that education should be limited in its extent, 
so far as the great body of a people is concerned, 
since by over-educating you make the lower classes 
discontented, and unwilling to labor and rear families 
in the condition of life wherein they are placed. 

Thus the theorists, with conflicting views on what 
should be done, yet agree that unless something is 
done to change the present condition of things, we 
must abandon hope and look forward to the speedy 
demolition of the Republic, to the usual period of 
anarchy and civil strife, and to that final result of 
every experiment of popular government hitherto, — 
the Empire. 

After this somewhat detailed recital of the various 
causes which might lead us to fear what the second cen- 
tury of our national existence may have in store for us, 



24 ORATION. 

I turn with pleasure to examine the other side of the 
picture. I do not purpose to reply to each argument 
of the various classes of the despondent, seriatim. 
I propose to classify their grounds of apprehension; 
to oj^pose to these the grounds of hope; to suggest 
briefly the remedies for such evils as are real and 
must continue in operation, and to show what will be 
the field of intelligent activity in which patriotism 
may labor with the reasonable certainty of advanc- 
ing the prosperity of our country and the welfare, 
not only of its citizens, but of all mankind, during 
the coming century. 

In the first place, it must be evident that many of 
the misfortunes of the time are of the time only. 
They arose from the unusual experience through 
which we have recently passed; they could have 
been anticipated by all familiar with the history of 
nations; they have been no greater than, if as great, 
as w\as feared by the thoughtful, and already we 
have, in a great measure, recovered from them. A 
civil war, while it always aflbrds illustrious examples 
of patriotism and self-sacrifice; while it discovers to 
mankind heroes, and gives opportunity^ for states- 
men, — yet, especially as it progresses, brings to the 
front the demagogues, ambitious for power, place, or 
profit. And it results that just in proportion to its 
exigencies, the measures of administration are likely 
to be ill-advised, and to sacrifice the future interests 
of the country to its present apparent necessities. 



JULY4,1877. 25 

]N^o civil war ever afforded more memorable examples 
of this fact than om' own. It is, I believe, generally 
conceded that the vicious economical measures 
adopted during the war, the Legal Tender Act, the 
5-20 Loan Act, — construed one way to get it through 
Congress, and another way to win subscriiDtions from 
capitalists, — and the self-defeating measures for enor- 
mous taxes through the tariff and the internal rev- 
enues, have cost the industry of the country more 
than the whole legitimate expenses of the war. I*^ot 
only that, but to the same cause luay be traced that 
im^^atience of legitimate business, that dissatisfaction 
with reasonable profits, that sudden accumulation of 
large fortunes, which threw our community into such 
a state of fever; and, on the other hand, to the same 
cause may also be more remotely attributed the 
shrinkage of nominal values, the wide-spread bank- 
ruptcy, the forced economy of more recent years. 
Nothing is more true than that every waste of war, 
every loss through blunders of finance or false 
systems of taxation must be paid for. The burden 
must be removed from the State by the labor of the 
people. But the labor is easier in a country like this, 
where I^^ature herself, by her generous aid, every- 
where waits to be the helpmate of man; where the 
river-god longs to turn the wheel for the miller, and 
Ceres runs alongside the plough of the farmer with 
her promise of an abundant harvest. Already we see 

4 



26 OKATION. 

our way out of the great load of debt which has 
weighed upon capital and labor alike. We see open- 
ing new avenues of foreign trade, new employments 
for home manufacture. When the West can look 
forward to her speedy recognition as the chief gran- 
ary of the Old World; when the ingenuity of the ship- 
owner and the enterprise of the merchant have 
enabled the agriculturist from distant Iowa and re- 
moter Texas to drive, so to speak, his flocks and his 
herds to the very gates of the metropolis of the 
mother country, we certainly should banish all fear 
for the future material prosperity of our land. Great 
as, is our debt, our resources are greater. Even the 
banki'uptcy, so wide-spread, however disastrous to 
individuals and to business it seems, and, in fact, is for 
a while, however depressing it has been in the past, is 
really a reason for hope in the future, since it places 
business on a sound basis, and, like a severe but well- 
performed surgical operation, cuts out and eradicates 
that fever-sore which for years has kept the business 
of the country in a state of undue excitement and 
corresponding depression. 

If this view of the future material condition of the 
country is correct, we shall conclude that the evils 
resulting frgm former mistakes in our economical 
policy are only temporary. We have only to bend 
our efforts to prevent a repetition of past errors, and 
to correct those which still exist, or which interested 



JULY 4, 1877. 27 

parties, allied to visionaries, who do not see the dross 
under the silver-plating*, seek to impose upon as by 
law. 

The same suggestion, that they are of temporary 
origin and already losing their hold upon the popular 
prejudices, enables us to rid ourselves of all fear of 
permanent injury from many evil practices, in fact in 
violation of the spirit and letter of the Constitution, 
and in their tendency subversive of our system 
of government, which obtained during and soon after 
the "war. On all sides we witness a determination 
and an effort to return to a correct theory of our 
Constitution, and to conduct public affairs in accoi'd- 
ance with that theory. I would not abate one iota 
from the severity of the condemnation which should 
be visited upon those who, in order to preserve power 
in a particular party, have perverted and violated the 
Constitution and those rights of man on which the 
Declaration of Independence puts its justification for 
the separation from the crown of England. I should 
be ashamed of myself, and ashamed of any man 
claiming to be an American citizen, if he or I could 
utter, or with patience listen to, a word of apology 
for any one of those men who, after the last election, 
wilfully abused the positions of public trust which 
they occupied, for the purpose either of perverting 
the truth of the electoral count, or of preventing the 
truth from its legitimate triumph over deceit and 
fraud. 



28 ORATION. 

But that was their act. They may safely be left to 
the verdict of history, eveif if that of their fellow- 
countrymen has not already put a seal of condemna- 
tion upon them. For I believe that while there was 
no loud-voiced judgment of an unanimous people, ex- 
pressed on the instant of the announcement that the 
conspiracy against the people was successful, owing 
in great measure to the want of opportunity for 
giving vent to such unanimous expression, there has 
yet been a silent, but constantly progressing, public 
opinion formed, which, though not boisterous or in- 
trusive in the press, or pulpit, or on the platform, is 
yet of controlling force in the community, and will, 
if ever occasion comes, destroy in a moment any man, 
or set of men, who seek to repeat the crime of 
the past year; and that, instead of fearing for the 
freedom of elections hereafter, we ought to take 
courage, and hold that the very interference with 
that freedom, by directing the attention of all men to 
it, has made it certain that the right of every man to 
have his vote counted will never again be disre- 
garded. The day of the carpet-bagger and the re- 
turning-board has gone by. Every State and every 
citizen in our broad land is to-day free. I care not 
to discuss whether this has been brought about by 
the voluntary act of the administration, or in answer 
to the demand of a large majority of the people of 
all parties. In one case a large share of praise 



JULY 4, 1877. 29 

belongs to the former; in the other, or in either case, 
we are inspired with hope for the future, and renewed 
faith in the people. For we recognize not only that 
the public opinion will eventually be arrayed on the 
side of right and justice and freedom, but also that 
it can sometimes prevail to change the settled policy 
of a party long, and still, in power. 

Indeed, I think, whatever we may say of particular 
men, that the conduct of the people in approving so 
unanimously the scheme for the electoral count, and 
in submitting so unreservedly to the decisions of the 
tribunal, is deserving of the highest praise. Instead 
of inspiring us with distrust, it should increase our 
faith in them ; for it signifies that they had faith in 
the honesty of the proposed Commission, and be- 
lieved that, as they themselves desired, the merits of 
the controversy would be ascertained, and the truth 
permitted to triumph; and, in the second place, it is 
a remarkable instance of how far the people of this 
country will go in frowning down every resort to 
violence, and in relying upon the remedy, always in 
their own hands, at the ballot-box. 

Hence we draw another source of confidence in the 
future. The evils which spring from partisanship 
no one will venture to deny, and there is surely no 
need of exaggerating them. But they are not 
peculiar to our country or to a Republic. They 
exist wherever parties are known. They are greater 



30 ORATION. 

or less according to the integrity and ability of those 
who, at any time or in any country, mingle in politics 
and lead the different sides. In our view of the 
future we must assume that parties will continue to 
exist, and will be the chief instrumentalities for 
directing the policy of the nation. Let us accept the 
inevitable, and hope that that advantage to the public 
weal which may be accomplished through the organ- 
ization of men into parties may more than compen- 
sate for the evils of party excesses. After all, par- 
ties are but jDarts of the whole people. And this, 
leads us to make another distinction between the 
different causes of apprehension that are felt for our 
future. 

The distinction is between those causes of despond- 
ency which s^^ring from the character, or rather 
want of character, and from the condition of the 
whole people, and those which arise from recent mal- 
administration, or the accidental ascendency for a 
time of bad men. For, if it be true that a people 
is hopelessly corrupt, then, indeed, remedies are 
ineffectual, and despair alone is left; but, if the 
heart of the people is sound, then, however much 
they may for a time be carried away by passion or 
deluded by false sentiment, that sober second-thought 
upon which the fathers relied will surely bring them 
back to the right Avay, and justify that confidence in 
mankind upon which all hope for the Republic must 



JULY 4, 1877. 31 

depend. It is not wonderful that during the war 
many acts of unauthorized power were committed, 
many encroachments upon one department of govern- 
ment were made by another, without calUng forth the 
immediate censure of the jDublic ; it is not wonderful 
that the public service became corrupt at a time 
when its scope of action became so extended; but a 
universal voice demands its reform, and the only 
division of sentiment is in regard to the means of 
bringing that reformation about. With regard to 
the lessening growth of population, which affects some 
with grave alarm, the fact cannot be safely asserted 
with reference to the whole country. In older sec- 
tions, where wealth accumulates, such an experience 
would accord with our expectations. In more 
recently settled parts of the country, and in the 
whole country, the increase of population is as 
rapid as could be desired. The conclusions of social 
science ought only to be based on the broadest 
induction. 

It is no new thing that wealth should find its 
worshippers. The truth is that the desire for acqui- 
sition is one of the strongest motives to inspire 
labor; and while it often brings misery to a man, 
and for a time to a special community, it always 
operates to develop the resources and increase the 
influence and importance of the nation. "We live 
different lives from our revolutionary ancestors ; but 



32 ORATION. 

the whole world is different. Science and art 



through commerce, suj)ply us with luxuries which to 
them were inaccessible. All these evils, in part tem- 
porary, in part imaginary, in part exaggerated, need 
cause us little fear. If, however, the people have 
lost their devotion to truth; if they are carried away 
by the sensational; if they have lost the habit of 
thought; if they are no longer capable of self- 
restraint, — then our condition is far from envial)le. 
But are these things so? , Does not, in the theatre, 
the triumph of virtue over vice still call forth the 
unanimous plaudits of the house? The sensational 
had its triumph long ago, when the public nerves, so 
to speak, had been unstrung by the excitements of the 
war. Like the mania for speculation, it has little 
power now over men. We refuse to be moved by 
rumors; we distrust everything that seems extrava- 
gant ; we laugh at politicians or preachers who sub- 
stitute sound for sense. Indeed, we demur to the 
graces of rhetoric, such is our dread of whatever 
prolongs the discourse. There has been, I admit, 
owing perhaps to their engrossment in business, an 
unwillingness on the part of many to devote much 
thought or study to subjects of importance in politics 
or social science. This habit probably arose long 
before the war, and, in fEict, soon after our institutions 
had become established; when they almost ran alone; 
when no disturbance thi'catened, and no really im- 



JULY 4, 1877. 33 

portant question was before the people, l^ow that 
men see that their welfare and that of their pos- 
terity comiDels the attention of all to these important 
subjects, if the rights of all are to be preserved, there 
is a great and will be an increasing disposition to 
cultivate thought and to give the necessary time to 
public affairs. 

As to what has been objected to the power of cor- 
porations and the misconduct of the press, candor 
compels the admission that there is too much truth in 
what has been said on these subjects. But, on the 
other hand, the danger from these sources has been 
frequently pointed out, and cannot be held to be 
beyond remedy. Corporations were a great aid to 
the development of our resources. They are still and 
will continue to be productive of great good. They 
are but creatures of the State, and subject to its con- 
trol. So the evils believed to arise from an ill-man- 
aged press are nothing when we remember that it is 
of the last importance that the press should be free. 
Much of the talk about the press is seen to be ill- 
founded, if we but recall the necessary conditions of 
its usefulness. It must every day set before its 
readers the news from all parts of the world. Its 
editorials must be written at the moment, and from 
such impression of fact as the daily reports convey. 

The reader must fully comprehend that the daily 
press, like the mirror, presents but a reflection of the 

5 



34 ORATION. 

appearance of things. It does not and cannot 
attempt anything more. And if we turn to our 
periodical literature, we shallfind an opportunity for 
all sides on every question to be heard, and a gener- 
ally thoughtful and fair discussion of things on their 
merits. Finally, as to both the influence of cor- 
porations and the press, a correct public opinion will 
keep both in their place, and make both useful and 
harmless. The same reflections that lead us to trust 
our peojDle in other respects, will enable us to con- 
clude that we are fast moving towards that correct 
public opinion, and may confidently look forward to 
the gradual disappearance of all real danger from 
either of the two causes of which we have been 
speaking. 

There remains, however, the dread of the conse- 
quences which may result from the difi'erences of race, 
origin, religious views and habits of thought of our 
population. That these difierences are to be slighted 
no one would pretend. That they can be overcome 
by the preponderance of one race or creed is unlikely • 
that they can be merged is no more probable. They 
must coexist in harmony and in independence; for 
if either of these can by any means ally to itself 
the power of the government, it will inflict upon 
the country no end of woes. They may be a blessing 
or a curse, according as the whole people understand 
the function of their government and demand that it be 



JULY 4, 1877. 35 

administered in its true spirit. Here we have a real 
danger to be faced, but the remedy is in our hands. 
The remedy is to restrict the domain of government, 
Irrational and State, within the narrowest possible 
limits. The Republic recognizes religion; it ignores 
creeds. It recognizes freedom of thought; it lends 
its aid to the theories of no race or sect. It guards 
liberty, but it gives no man or class license. Well 
understood, our federal system will protect us abroad 
and unite us at home. Perverted to the behest of a 
section, a race, or a sect, it would be an unendura- 
ble tyranny, a foe to mankind, and an obstacle to all 
progress. The reservation of the control of domestic 
affairs to the States, the localization of power, the 
limitation of it by written constitutions, — these are 
the great triumphs of the first century of our inde- 
pendence. 

The work begun by the first, but left to this 
century to complete, is not less important, viz., 
to carry into practice the great principle that 
not even to the State Government should be per- 
mitted any power not absolutely necessary to ensure 
the safety of the citizen in his life, his property, and 
the pursuit of such occupation and course of life as, 
without injury to other men, he may elect. 

You may have under one jurisdiction men of 
all races, all nationalities, all creeds, all colors. Let 
them, while they all look to government for pro- 



36 ORATION. 

tection, feel that they can claim no favor. The 
Republic knows them but as men, as citizens. 
They shall use no office, no patronage, no public 
school, no institution, no public fund, no recog- 
nition, to get any advantage over others who yield 
allegiance to other religions, or practise other 
habits of life. Our political contests must be con- 
fined to political issues, and the man who would 
stir up a strife of races, or sections, or sects, is, 
morally speaking, a traitor to the Republic, and 
a correct public opinion will consign him to a 
traitor's infamy. If this remedy for the danger 
apprehended from these differences of race and 
religion be properly attended to, the danger will 
disappear, and liberty be the gainer. For, in one 
view, what is liberty but diversity; what despotism 
but unwitting conformity? And so that which 
seems the weakness is in fact the strength of our 
nation. I sympathize with all those who look 
upon the addition to our domain of new territory 
as giving new ground to hope for the permanence 
of our institutions; and I have no fear that an 
accession of population, from whatever source, will 
prove otherwise than beneficial. For our Republic 
is bound together by but a rope of sand, unless our 
people recognize that its underlying principle is 
unity from diversity. E plurihus u'lium may apply 
literally only to the union of tlie States. But the 



JULY 4, 1877. 37 

motto does not incorrectly describe the unity which 
coexists with, and in fact owes its strength to, the 
multiplicity of interests, and opinions and beliefs, 
which our country offers to view. So I say, extend 
our limits wherever we rightfully may; and hold 
out, as our fathers did, a welcome to all comers, 
Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile, Moslem or 
Christian. Whose voice, if not that of the benefi- 
cent Republic, can so fitly utter the oft-quoted 
words of the ancient dramatist : — 

' ' Nil humani a me alienum puto " ? 

For it is, after all, man whose welfare and happi- 
ness are the end of all our hopes and labors, as it is 
upon man himself that we depend to accomplish his 
own emancipation from all forms of bondage. For 
man constitutions are formed. For man is all gov- 
ernment established. This, formerly the distinctive 
faith of the American, is now the accepted creed of 
progressive men in all civilized countries. A govern- 
ment of the people, for the people and by the people, 
is a watchword that in itself proclaims an irrepressi- 
ble conflict between the friends of freedom and the 
advocates of power. It brings into harmony the 
hitherto discordant voices of authority and liberty. 
It remits government to its own place, and rests its 
sanction upon those for whose benefit alone it exists. 
It is from no superstitious reverence for a musty 



38 OKATION. 

parchment, from no bigoted faith in certain phrases 
of language, that we urge all never to falter in their 
allegiance to the federal system. It is because that 
system best represents the union of freedom and 
order, and makes the latter sure and the former pos- 
sible. "But it by no means follows that there is no 
more work left for the present century to do. Patri- 
otism indeed pauses with the confines of the country. 
There must be a limit beyond which the federal sys- 
tem cannot be extended. But that love of man and 
of his rights, which imbued those who declared our 
independence and framed our system of government, 
cannot be bounded by any natural barrier. It will 
find in the coming time its full sphere of activity. 
Already we see, in the movement for treaties of com- 
mercial reciprocity, a recognition of the principle that 
mankind must be freed from the shackles which gov- 
ernments would put upon their freedom of inter- 
course; in other words, a movement for further lim- 
iting the interference of government with the freedom 
of the citizen, — that is, in this case, an affirmance of 
the broadest right to trade on even terms with other 
men of what nation soever. In the field of political 
economy again government comes in as an obstruc- 
tive agent, if it comes in at all. He would be unwor- 
thy to be called a student of that as yet imperfect 
science who should attempt to establish any proposi- 
tion of currency, of finance, of internal or customs 



JULY 4, 1877. 39 

taxation, from the experience of one nation alone. 
It would seem as if the advocates of some new theo- 
ries at the AVest might have their attention awakened 
by the fact that the real value of their favorite silver 
can only be known from day to day by a telegram 
through the cable. 

We see here how the second century may carry 
to a more full fruition the seed sown in the first 
by the wisdom of the fathers. At the beginning 
of their work they found independence necessary. 
The first step was to cut off" commercial inter- 
course. A sej)arate government came later. Yet, 
as I have said, whatever they did was but a means 
to an end, and that end the more perfect freedom 
of man. But we in our day, in the pursuit of the 
same end, while we find independence in govern- 
ment, and also independence from government, 
useful aids, yet have learned that the pathway of 
progress can hereafter be successfully trod only 
by recognizing the interdependence of nation upon 
nation, of man upon mankind. To break down the 
traditions and the prejudices which blind the eyes 
of our people to this truth; to create from many 
diverse nations that union and harmony and peace 
which, injuring none, may benefit all, is a task 
well worth the efi'orts of the patriot and the phi- 
lanthropist. For the accomplishment of this work 
we must have faith in the people; ajid if in any- 



40 ORATION. 

thing they be found wanting, those who possess 
superior advantages in point of knowledge, or 
power of thought, or facility in spoken or written 
language, must guide and instruct the less favored. 
Such guidance and instruction will not be in vain, 
if only a proper spirit enter into the labor. Our 
educated men must forego that indifference to 
public affairs which to so large an extent has 
taken possession of them. Better suffer the per- 
sonal abuse and discomfort of the most bitter 
political contests, than remit the decision of a sin- 
gle important question to the hands of selfish place- 
hunters, charlatans, and buyers of votes. 

If the people go wrong, the fault will lie at the 
door of those who, tit to be leaders, having the duty 
of leadership upon them, yet through mental laziness 
or moral cowardice desert their posts. But I banish 
the fear of such baseness. The young men who are 
now coming upon the stage have been well in- 
structed in their public duties; they have enthusiasm 
and public sj^irit; and many, also, who have hitherto 
made light of the affairs that concern us all are 
coming to understand that there is more true satis- 
faction in attempting to be of use to their fellow- 
men, even if the attempt fail, than in sulkily declining 
all exertion for the public good, and having to carry 
through life the recollection of their recreancy to 
duty. 



JULY 4, 1877. 41 

From every college in the land, at this time of the 
annual commencement exercises, there comes a 
imiform voice, which exhorts the children of alma 
mater, those who have long since left her fold, not 
less than those Avhom this year sends forth into the 
world*, to bear constantly in mind the right which the 
State has upon them to claim their zealous co-oper- 
ation in whatever makes for her good, their ready and 
vigorous opposition to whatever would lower her 
standard or bring evil upon her. These things show 
that a fresh interest in public affairs has taken posses- 
sion of our institutions of learning. The mind and 
heart of the people will respond to their call. These 
auspicious omens cheer us. 

Let us, then, renew our faith in the people, and 
we shall never despair of the Republic. We should 
believe in it, trust it, labor for it, love it, nay, almost 
revere it. Why should we not? It is foimded in 
eternal justice, and challenges our faith. It is our 
best minister for good, and is worthy oui- trust. 
It protects us; we should work for it. It is a 
kind and no oppressive mother; we cannot help 
loving it. And shall we not revere it also, in 
no spirit of idolatry, as a mere device of man, but 
because it conforms to the order of the universe, 
and epitomizes for man the grand scheme of crea- 
tion? The lines of the poet upon our country's 
flao' have become household words over all our 
land : — 



42 ORATION. 

" Flag of the free heart's hope and home ! 
By angel hands to valor given ; 
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, 

And all thy hues were born in heaven." 

So there is in that Union formed of man}^ States, 
each of which has its own sphere of activity, within 
which it is independent and self-centred, yet all 
bound together by a tie which holds them in per- 
petual connection with that federal state from which 
each and all derive the strength and aid which make 
their independence valuable, and guarantee their per- 
manence, no merely fanciful reproduction, in the 
realm of human affairs, of that great work of the 
Creator himself, — that system of which our earth is 
a member, and in which each independent planet, 
revolving on its own axis, yet clings to its orbit, 
and owns the power of the central sun, source 
of all warmth and life, so that the nearer Mercury, 
small though it be, is no more firmly bound to its 
regular course than is the bulky Jupiter or remotest 
JN^eptune. So may it ever be with our system. May 
the sun lose its power and become dim, may the 
planets fly from their orbits, as soon as a single 
State, from smallest Khode Island to impei-ial 
Texas, shall forget the bonds that hold it to the 
Kepublic, or the Republic herself cease to be an 
ever-increasing blessing to all. 



>h 



LIBRAKY ur owin^. .. 



011 801 682 8 



